Saracens 33-19 NEC Harlequins

By Sundance
April 18 2007

It always feels slightly odd, to my eyes, to watch rugby in blazing sunshine. My earliest memories of the game were seeing teams sloshing around in mudbaths while rain/fog/snow added to the sense that this is a winter game.

Because of the surreal April heatwave at Vicarage Road, there was an official mid-session drinks break in each half. It almost felt like a day at the cricket. I was half wondering when the cucumber sandwiches were going to come out.

This was sadly the day that Quins’ loss, coupled with the Irish victory, meant sixth place finally fell out of reach. However, who knows what sort of European rugby there will be next season anyway? After all the club v country squabbling, and the discontented rumblings over season ticket price hikes, it was good to get back to watching the game itself.

On our travels this year Quins have beaten teams below them in the table but none of those above. The ambition for next year must be to start to compete with, and beat, some of the big guns in their backyards. For, let’s be honest, Quins were never seriously in this match. Tries from Deane and Williams late in the first half, and one from Brown at the death put a better reflection on the score but Sarries were clearly the stronger side in almost every area, and most obviously in the pack.

The Quinssa contingent assured me afterwards that Saracens regularly put too many men into the lineouts and despite shouts of “numbers” to Chris White, he chose to ignore it. This might go a long way to explaining why Fuga seemed unable to find his men for the first half an hour.

The scrum also appeared creaky and Saracens had most of the play in the loose too. More clinical finishing could have seen them out of sight before the half hour. “We just weren’t accurate enough,” said Alan Gaffney afterwards.

However, he added that Quins had reason for optimism. “They’ve got some exciting young players, they have been putting in some good performances,” he said. “I like the way they try to play the game.”

Of course he’d be delighted if every team who turned up at Vicarage Road played like Quins did in the first quarter. But take nothing away from Saracens who are putting a strong run in at the right end of the season and may well be the dark horses in the play-offs.

Sarries’ fly half Jackson kicked the first points from in front of the posts after three minutes. Mehrtens had a chance to equalise a couple of minutes later when Brown was tackled by an offside player. But from just inside Sarries half he was off target.

Shortly after that Masson, making with Deane yet another new centre partnership for Quins this season, tried to find Strettle with a pass which would have put him in try scoring space but it was fingertipped away.

Then from the first scrum of the match Hala’Ufia went on the charge. However his trademark hand-off this time had an element of swing of the arm about it and he was given a dressing down but no further action from the referee.

Saracens started to put the pressure on. Five or six phases of possession saw Hill dive for the line only to be stopped just short. A couple of minutes later Brown saved an otherwise certain try with a big tackle on Scarbrough.

The score had to come though and on 13 minutes Chesney powered in with tacklers hanging off him after more good work from Hill. Jackson missed the conversion but at 8-0 it was looking ominous.

From the restart Sarries ran the ball the length of the field through forwards and backs and again Hill looked sure to score but was hauled back by Mehrtens. Vyvyan scooped up and went over but the ball had gone forward.

Then there was another difficult moment for Quins from the scrum when Gomarsall’s radar went wrong and he missed Mehrtens by yards, the ball going into the crowd behind him, to their great amusement.

Sarries came again and only a big tackle from Vos prevented Vyvyan scoring. At this stage the game could already have been over but a minute later Volley was pinged for a push in the lineout and Jackson kicked another simple three points. 11-0.

Brown was by now sporting an identical headband to Keogh and the medical men seemed to be coming and going regularly. Sarries have a lot of muscle and Quins were struggling to hold them out.

On the half hour mark, Quins finally got to put some pressure on the Saracens defence following a beautiful line kick by Mehrtens down the right flank which pitched infield in front of the covering player and then spun at a right angle, like a googly from Warne, out of play. My note at this point just says: “Genius”.

Quins pack charged at the Sarries line three times but could not find a way through a group of men who were noticeably bigger in nearly every position. No.3 Johnston and No.5 Raiwalui looked particularly immoveable.

Finally Quins gave the backs a go and Strettle ran at the posts before going down under a big challenge which was to force him off with an ankle injury. Then Mehrtens threw out a long pass which was so nearly intercepted.

Quins’ momentum seemed to have gone with Strettle’s departure. However in the next minute Mehrtens passed well to Keogh who found Deane down the left wing to score. AM converted and suddenly Quins were back in the game at 11-7.

Shortly afterwards Jackson hit his third penalty for an offside to make it 14-7 but then a huge play by Hala’Ufia saw him tackle and dispossess the mountainous Johnston. Mehrtens punted through and Williams, on for Strettle, was fastest in the chase, hacking on and touching down to make it 14-12 at half time. After being taken apart in the first 30 minutes, suddenly it looked like a remarkable recovery might just be possible.

That all changed shortly after half time when Castaignede ran a great line from deep and carved straight through under the posts to give Jackson an easy conversion. 21-12.

At this point the game, which had been pretty open and entertaining, went quiet. Sarries started kicking for the corners and eating up possession. Both teams were making regular substitutions in the blazing heat.

Hill went off for Seymour, having had an outstanding 60 minutes. Deano sent on Hayter and Miall to freshen up the troubled lineout. So’oialo replaced Gomarsall who was not having his best match. Skinner came on for Vos.

Farrell was starting to make more impact and he found Scarbrough with a good pass on 69 minutes for Sarries third try, converted by Jackson to make it 28-12.

Further substitutions saw Nebbett on for Ross and Masson’s removal saw last sub Guest sent on as a makeshift right wing, Williams moving into centre.

In the final five minutes Sarries secured their bonus point as Jackson took a ball from Rauluni but failed to add the extra points and then, right at the end, Brown ran solo straight into the entire Saracens pack and somehow wriggled through all of them to score. Mehrtens converted to make it 33-19 and that was that.


P.S. - I feel that perhaps I should put myself into voluntary retirement from CAW match reporting, having previously covered the debacle at Wasps in September. My record is played two, lost two, points for 42, points against 75. In both matches Quins got late tries to make the scorelines slightly less painful but we were never seriously in contention in either game. Here’s hoping we can start to perform against the leading teams next season. Saracens development over the last two years, since they were also involved in our relegation scrap, should be an inspiration to us.